Murdoch Murdoch - A Case Study in Threats To Ontological Security

Julian Morein
Senior Thesis
Dr. Angela Kachuyeveski
3 May 2020
Murdoch Murdoch: A Case Study in Threats to Ontological Security in Far-Right
Propaganda
I. Introduction
Far-right groups have seen an uptick in support across western democracies. From Donald
Trump’s victory in the United States, to France’s National Front winning its highest vote share in
the most recent presidential election,2 to the VOX party’s parliamentary breakthrough in Spain’s
most recent elections,3 the far-right is having a political resurgence after years of steady growth
in support.4 These successes have also corresponded with an increase in widespread and well
organized far-right propaganda, especially online. Far-right media employs several tactics to
mainstream it’s ideas and to radicalize potential supporters. These include websites that spread
disinformation presented as news,5 coordinated Twitter attacks,6 the incubation and
dissemination of targeted memes,7 and the promulgation of far-right wed series. These web
2
“The Maps That Show How France Voted and Why,” BBC News (BBC, May 12, 2017),
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39870460)
3
Sohail Jannessari, “The Left Will Govern Spain, but the Far-Right Is the Real Winner,” Foreign Policy, November
16, 2019, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/16/spain-election-vox-far-right-socialists-winner/)
4
“The Maps That Show How France Voted and Why,” BBC News; Kristin Haltinner. “Paving the Way for Trump:
The Tea Party’s Invisible Influence on the 2016 Election” in Trumping the Mainstream: The Conquest of
Mainstream Democratic Politics by the Populist Radical Right. Edited by Herman, Lise Esther, and James Muldoon.
London; New York: Routledge, Taylor et Francis Group, 2019.
5
Jacob Davey, Erin Saltman, and Jonathan Birdwell, “The Mainstreaming of Far-Right Extremism Online and how
to Counter It”: Trumping the Mainstream: The Conquest of Mainstream Democratic Politics by the Populist Radical
Right. Edited by Herman, Lise Esther, and James Muldoon. London; New York: Routledge, Taylor et Francis
Group, 2019.
6
Caitlin E Lawson. 2018. “Platform Vulnerabilities: Harassment and Misogynoir in the Digital Attack on Leslie
Jones.” Information, Communication & Society 21 (6): 818–33.
7
Davey, et al. “The Mainstreaming of Far-Right Extremism Online”
series can be news or discussion based, such as videos created by white nationalist youtubers
such as Stefan Molyneux, or narrative based propaganda. One example of narrative far-right
propaganda, Murdoch Murdoch (MM), a South Park inspired white nationalist series, has been
cited by groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center as particularly potent propaganda.8 For the
purposes of this paper the far-right consists of nationalist groups, including both ethno-
nationalism and civic-nationalism. The former, often overtly fascist, advocate for a particular
ethnic groups’ supremacy. Civic-nationalists by contrast, distances themselves from more overt
fascism and instead, at least rhetorically, support the democratic systems they exist in.9
Therefore, while many far-right groups openly advocate for authoritarianism, it is not the
defining feature, but rather their support for nationalist policies. This thesis seeks to examine
how such nationalist media attempts to radicalize viewers, using MM as a case study. Applying a
critical discourse analysis to MM, this thesis argues that far-right media portrays any challenge to
the status quo, be it demographic, political, cultural, or social, as threatening to ontological
security by utilizing a Positive Self and Negative Other dichotomy.
II. Literature Review
Social scientists have proposed various theories and explanations to understand how the
far-right radicalizes individuals since the fall of the Nazi regime in 1945. Some scholars focus on
political psychology, positing that far-right groups utilized the talents of singular leaders to
exploit psychological weaknesses in their followers. Other focus on how the far-right take
advantage of existing political structures. Research centered on ontology and security argues that
8
Hatewatch Staff, “McInnes, Molyneux, and 4chan: Investigating Pathways to the Alt-Right,” Southern Poverty
Law Center, April 19, 2018, https://www.splcenter.org/20180419/mcinnes-molyneux-and-4chan-
investigating-pathways-alt-right)
9
Daphne Halikiopoulou, “'Far-right' Groups May Be Diverse – But Here's What They All Have in Common,” The
Conversation, January 21, 2019, https://theconversation.com/far-right-groups-may-be-diverse-but-heres-what-they-
all-have-in-common-101919)
the far-right utilizes cultural anxieties to recruit members of dominant cultures within a society
who feel left behind in some way. Much of the literature complements each other rather than
arguing against other theories, often working in tandem to provide multi-facited explanations.
However, while all these arguments do partially explain the sustainability of the far-right, the use
of rhetoric and the exploitation of cultural anxieties can best explain the recent rise of the far-
right. Overwhelming research demonstrates that the far-right not only influences political
discourse, but that these groups effectively target cultural anxieties in their propaganda.
Psychological Arguments
Immediate post World War II analysis of far-right movements posited that far-right
supporters have a pathology driving them to support charismatic leaders. These scholars,
unsurprisingly, focused on Nazi Germany.10 Perhaps the most prominent advocate of this idea
was Theodore Adorno whose 1950 book The Authoritarian Personality championed the idea that
far-right support came from a more inherent psychological predisposition to support strong-man
type leaders.11 Many scholars writing during the 1950s and 1960s used The Authoritarian
Personality as a jumping off point for their research.12 Adorno also made a key distinction
between traditional conservatism and the more fringe far-right, what he called “Pseudo-
Conservatism.”13
More recent analysis on far-right authoritarianism argues that political environment also
plays a key role in activating these predispositions. While some people may be more inclined to
10
Kathleen Blee, and Kimberly A. Creasap. "Conservative and Right-Wing Movements." Annual Review of
Sociology 36 (2010): 269-86. 271.
11
Theodor W. Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality: Studies in Prejudice, ed. Max Horkheimer and Samuel H.
Flowerman (N.Y.: Harper and Row, 1950).
12
Douglas K Stewart., and Ted C. Smith. "Celebrity Structure of the Far-right." The Western Political Quarterly 17,
no. 2 (1964): 349-55. 349.
13
Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality
support authoritarian leaders, they need the right environment to activate such behavior.16 This
trait also exists in some left wing individuals. However, it is far more common in on the political
right.17 Fear around perceived threats can also motivate people to support far-right groups and
policy.18 Applying Adorno’s theories on authoritarianism to the election of Donald Trump,
Trump supporters are more likely to be more predisposed authoritarian personality traits, are
self-preservation oriented, show strong dislike for outside groups, and support isolation from
outside groups.19
While a psychological predisposition to supporting authoritarianism provides a useful
data point in determining how far-right parties and figures gain support, it does not explain how
this predisposition came about if it also requires the right political environment. Because much
of the research in political psychology maintains that even genetic components do not solely
create leanings towards authoritarianism, and because not all far-right groups present as openly
authoritarian, other factors must be explored in order to determine how far-right groups,
radicalize new members.
The Alliance Between Economic and Cultural Conservatives
Others built on Adorno to create a framework for the distinction between traditional
economic conservatism and ethnic or culturally based nationalism. Historian Richard Hofstader
described the pseudo-conservative as a uniquely American problem writing, “pseudo-
conservatism is in good part a product of the rootlessness and heterogeneity of American life,
16
Steven G. Ludeke and Robert F. Krueger, “Authoritarianism as a Personality Trait: Evidence from a Longitudinal
Behavior Genetic Study,” Personality and Individual Differences 55, no. 5 (2013): pp. 480-484. 482-484.
17
J.D Meloen. “The F scale as a predictor of fascism: An overview of 40 years of authoritarian research”. In
Strength and Weakness: The Authoritarian Personality Today. W. F. Stone, G. Lederer, & R. Christie (Eds.), New
York: Springer, 1993. 47-69.
18
S Feldman & K Stenner. Perceived Threat and Authoritarianism. Political Psychology, 18 (4), 1997 741-770.
19
Thomas F. Pettigrew, “Social Psychological Perspectives on Trump Supporters,” Journal of Social and Political
Psychology 5, no. 1 (February 2017). 107-116.
and above all, of its peculiar scramble for status and its peculiar search for secure identity”20
Hofstader then divided American political debates into two categories based on this distinction.
These are “interest politics, the clash of material aims and needs among various groups and
blocs; and status politics, the clash of various projective rationalizations arising from status
aspirations.” He further argued that in years of economic hardship the former takes precedence,
while in eras of prosperity the later does.21 Hofstader’s work is emblematic of a shift in the
literature on the far-right from Adorno’s work. His writing, while heavily inspired by Adorno,
also presents the idea that far-right ideas are not always tied to economic ennui felt during crises.
This idea became far more important in later literature.
More recent research has framed the dichotomy between economic and cultural
conservatives as an alliance, bringing far-right ideas into the political mainstream. For instance,
American historian Allan Lichtman explored these connections between the 1920s up to the
Bush administration and concluded that American capitalism can at times promote moral sin and
cultural pluralism that cultural conservatives often oppose. However, the American “anti-
pluralist tradition is fundamentally pro-capitalist” and that “Anti-pluralist conservatives have
largely exempted capitalism from cultural corruption”22 Lichtman proposes that two movements
benefit from a symbiotic relationship. Anti-pluralists use the business class for their resources.
Capitalists in turn use the anti-pluralists to gain an enthusiastic base of support and to perpetuate
their wealth by preventing large swaths of voters from questioning these power structures.23 Such
20
Richard Hofstadter. "The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt." The American Scholar 24, no. 1 (1954): 9-27. 16.
21
Hofstadter. "The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt." 18.
22
Allan J Lichtman. White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement. (New York:
Atlantic Monthly Press 2008). 4-5.
23
Lichtman. White Protestant Nation. 4-5.
an alliance also helps explain the rise of the Tea Party and subsequently Donald Trump.24
Sociologist Kirstin Haltinner builds directly on Hofstadter to discuss the prevalence of anti-
intellectualism within the American conservative movement, arguing that both the Tea Party and
Trump relied on both groups for electoral success.25 The Tea Party, at first a fringe collection of
groups, has also gained mainstream exposure through traditional conservative means such as
wealthy donor support,26 as well as media attention, particularly through Fox News.27
This alliance, while not the only factor, helps explain how far-right ideas can gain more
mainstream audiences than they might have otherwise. For instance, Fox News consistently
earns the highest cable news network ratings in the United States, with an audience in the
millions.28 Founded by Rupert Murdoch, a more traditional business conservative the channel
has hosted the likes of Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham both of whom have spoken about, in
all but name, the Great Replacement; a far-right conspiracy theory about the eventual erasure of
white people through immigration and higher birth rates among minority groups.29
False Consciousness and Cultural Hegemony
Marxists theorists argue that the very structure of liberal democratic nations leads to both
the alliance between fringe far-right groups and more traditional bastions of conservatism and a
general rise of far-right ideology using the theory of false consciousness. Broadly, false
24
Kristin Haltinner. “Paving the Way for Trump: The Tea Party’s Invisible Influence on the 2016 Election”:
Trumping the Mainstream: The Conquest of Mainstream Democratic Politics by the Populist Radical Right. Edited
by Herman, Lise Esther, and James Muldoon. London; New York: Routledge, Taylor et Francis Group, 2019.
25
Haltinner. “Paving the Way for Trump”: Trumping the Mainstream. 137
26
Mayer, Jane. Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires behind the Rise of the Radical Right. New
York: Anchor Books, 2015.
27
Skocpol, Theda, and Vanessa Williamson. The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
28
A.J. Katz, “October 2019 Ratings: Fox News Marks 40 Straight Months at the Top of the Basic Cable Heap,”
TVNewser (TVNewser, October 29, 2019), https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/october-2019-ratings-fox-news-
marks-40-straight-months-at-the-top-of-the-basic-cable-heap/419280/)
29
Courtney Hagle, “How Fox News Pushed the White Supremacist ‘Great Replacement’ Theory,” Media Matters
for America, May 8th 2019, https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/how-fox-news-pushed-white-
supremacist-great-replacement-theory)
consciousness is “a relation between who one is (objectively) and what one thinks
(subjectively).”30 Originally Marx and Engels thought of false consciousness as solely false
beliefs that intellectuals and the bourgeoisie held, relegated solely to the creators and perpetrators
of the superstructure.31 However, later Marxists theorists expanded this to include the working
class. Neo-Marxist Antonio Gramsci wrote that the superstructure, and the cultural institutions
that perpetuate, create false consciousness in the working class.32 Building on this, Marxist
Georg Lukacs wrote that a person operating under capitalist assumptions cannot fully understand
their own class and therefore operate under a sort of class blindness.33 Marxist thought therefore
broadly holds that rather than an alliance, the capitalists use cultural conservatism to perpetuate
their own power and status.
Cultural arguments
Horizontal Populism
Some scholars focus more broadly on populism but craft distinctions between left wing
and right wing versions. Broadly, populism is the struggle between two groups, a large,
seemingly pure, group and a smaller set of corrupt elites. There may be perceived special
interests, but these often fall under the elite category.39 In the political context populism at its
core the assertion that the current government in question does not accurately reflect the will of
the majority of citizens, and instead actively undermine that majority.40 If a populist movement
30
Ron Eyerman. “False Consciousness and Ideology in Marxist Theory." Acta Sociologica 24, no. 1/2 (1981): 43-
56. 44
31
Eyerman. "False Consciousness” 44.
32
33
39
Joseph Lacey. “Populism, Nationalism, and Ontological Security” in Trumping the Mainstream: The Conquest of
Mainstream Democratic Politics by the Populist Radical Right. Edited by Herman, Lise Esther, and James Muldoon.
London; New York: Routledge, Taylor et Francis Group, 2019. 96
40
Samir Gandesha. "Understanding Right and Left Populism.” In Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism,
edited by Morelock Jeremiah, 49-70. London: University of Westminster Press, 2018.
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv9hvtcf.7. 50
stays at this stage, i.e. a majority fighting against a corrupt set of people in power it is vertical
populism, and is more closely associated with the political left.41 However, other scholars have
built on this to add a new dimension, one that takes it out of the realm of purely economic
motives. If at some point the majority sees the elites as protecting some non-elite group, often an
ethnic, racial, or religious minority it becomes horizontal populism.42 This is the point at which
populism becomes far-right in nature. Therefore, by presenting threats to the safety of the
majority, and then connecting these threats to minority groups the far-right can co-opt otherwise
purely economic driven movements or create movements based on nonexistent problems.43
Threats to Security
Political Scientist Joseph Lacy molds the notions of populism and nationalism together
by connecting the two through ontological security.44 Under this theory a far-right movement
needs “at least some part of the citizenry feeling insecure about their ability to maintain the
material social and political conditions to continue their way of life.” This insecurity can come
from current issues, or a perceived future threat.45 Citizens see the nation-state as their source of
security because norms, especially socio-political norms, all develop at least somewhat uniquely
in each nation state and therefore “the nation-state provides a familiar and legitimate context for
decision making.”46 Threats to this familiar order “can provide strong grounds to resist ceding
too much decision-making power to distinct international bodies whose norms and practices may
41
Lacey. “Populism, Nationalism, and Ontological Security” 98.
42
Lacey. “Populism, Nationalism, and Ontological Security” 98
43
Jacob Davey, Erin Saltman, and Jonathan Birdwell, “The Mainstreaming of Far-Right Extremism Online and how
to Counter It”: Trumping the Mainstream: The Conquest of Mainstream Democratic Politics by the Populist Radical
Right. Edited by Herman, Lise Esther, and James Muldoon. London; New York: Routledge, Taylor et Francis
Group, 2019.
44
Lacey “Populism, Nationalism, and Ontological Security”
45
Lacey “Populism, Nationalism, and Ontological Security” 98.
46
be more difficult to understand and engage with for ordinary citizens.”47 While countries do have
international obligations, citizens within that state see its role as protecting co-nationals within
the state. Therefore, citizens reject certain public goods they perceive as benefiting non-
nationals. This further actualizes into support for policies that curb demographic changes and
immigration.48 Cultural anxiety can therefore be defined as “a symptom of socially and
institutionally privileged individuals feeling as though their rights to... government benefits,
private sector jobs (and so on) are being redistributed to people who are ‘less deserving’”49 Far-
right groups can further capitalize on this by creating situations in which they can manipulate the
media narrative and portray themselves both as a proxy for the dominant group and
simultaneously under attack because of this identity.50
Many point to the rise of globalization as a part of this loss of perceived security. For
instance, the global rise in anti-Semitism has been tied to far-right promulgations of anti-Semitic
troops.51 However, one thing that has changed more recently is that this rise is now longer tied to
economic downturns. Whereas historically anti-Semitism came as a result of economic
downturns, in the twenty first century it has risen even during favorable economic periods.
“Modern-day globalization-the opening of borders to the greater movement of ideas, people, and
money-has stirred familiar anxieties about ill-defined ‘outside forces.’”52 as individuals perceive
a lost sense of identity the nation state provided for them. Or as the historian Dan Dinar states
“People are losing their compass...A worldwide stock market, a new form of money, no borders.
47
48
Lacey “Populism, Nationalism, and Ontological Security” 98-99.
49
Christopher Parker, Sebastian Mayer, and Nicole Buckley. “Left, Right, But No In-Between” in Trumping the
Mainstream: The Conquest of Mainstream Democratic Politics by the Populist Radical Right. Edited by Herman,
Lise Esther, and James Muldoon. London; New York: Routledge, Taylor et Francis Group, 2019. 114 .
50
Lawson. “Platform Vulnerabilities”
51
M Strauss. “Anti-Globalism’s Jewish Problem” Foreign Policy, 139, (2003). 58-67.
52
Strauss. “Anti-Globalism’s Jewish Problem.” 60.
Concepts like country, nationality, everything is in doubt. They are looking for the ones who are
guilty of this new situation and they find the Jews.”53
Perceived threats to ontological security are key in understanding how the far-right
radicalizes individuals. As discussed in the psychology-based literature, while there may be
predispositions to supporting authoritarianism, especially among already right leaning people,
they need a threat to activate it. Ontological security, and the perceived threats to it such as like
globalization and demographic shifts, provide that activation.
Conclusion
While all the theoretical lenses discussed interconnect and provide at least some
explanatory value, ontological security provides the most all-encompassing and powerful
analytic framework. The psychological research has clearly demonstrated that support for far-
right leaders does not come about solely on its own, it needs activation. This activation comes
from propaganda that targets threats to security.
The far-right has long had success in taking advantage of popular media and mediums to
push propaganda that exacerbates fears surrounding perceived threats to the status quo. From the
use of the radio in the 1930s,54 to the use of computer games by far-right Christian groups in the
1980s,55 to the very early internet BBS boards,56 advocates on the extreme right are always ready
to take advantage of media and shape it to their own ideology. More recently researchers have
demonstrated how the far-right uses the internet to use linguistic tactics as well as take advantage
of cultural anxieties, often simultaneously. Far-right fake news sites often appropriate the
53
54
Kathleen M Blee, and Kimberly A. Creasap. "Conservative and Right-Wing Movements." Annual Review of
Sociology 36 (2010): 269-86. 271.
55
Blee, and Creasap. "Conservative and Right-Wing Movements." 272.
56
Chip Berlet and Carol Manson “Swastikas in Cyberspace: How Hate Went Viral”: Digital Media Strategies of the
Far-right in Europe and the United States. Edited by Simpson, Patricia Anne, and Druxes, Helga. Lanham, MD:
Lexington Books, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central.
language and appearance of traditional news sources to seem objective while pushing for hard
line anti-immigration platforms.57 Others have found that far-right news sites frame themselves
as agents of truth in a pan-western crusade against changing demographic trends.58 Social media
platforms often dominated by the far-right have been demonstrated to be breeding grounds and
eventually disseminators of memes that make far-right ideas palatable to the general public.59
Others have found far-right figures and political parties use social media to bypass traditional
media gatekeepers and spread messages targeted at exacerbating fears related to demographic
changes.60 Lastly, researchers have found evidence that many far-right groups take advantage of
backlash against liberal attempts at social reform and “political correctness’61 Far-right groups
creating, or exacerbating perceived threats to security provides a key component of
psychological research, it demonstrates the use of alliances with traditional conservatives for
legitimacy, and explains more recent alternative media created by the far-right.
III. Analytic Framework
Ontological security provides a useful framework to examine how far-right views
integrate themselves into political discourse. This paper will examine how far-right media takes
advantage of, and creates, threats to security, using the web series Murdoch Murdoch as its case
study. This paper will build on previous research that examines how far-right groups utilize
people’s sense of ontological security and connect it to elements the far-right opposes such as
minority groups and the political left. It will draw from research on the linguistic and narrative
57
Silje Nygaard. “The Appearance of Objectivity: How Immigration-Critical Alternative Media Report the News”,
2019 Journalism Practice. DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2019.1577697
58
Davey et al. “The Mainstreaming of Far-Right Extremism”
59
Davey et al. “The Mainstreaming of Far-Right Extremism”
60
R Schroeder “Digital media and the rise of right-wing populism”: Social Theory after the Internet: Media,
Technology, and Globalization. 2018 London: UCL Press.
61
Luigi Esposito, “The Alt-Right as a Revolt Against Neoliberalism and Political Correctness: The Role of
Collective Action Frames,” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 18, no. 1-2 (2019): pp. 93-110.
93.
tactics far-right media uses including euphemism, redefining common terms, and portrayals of us
versus them narratives.
Ontological Security and Rhetoric
Euphemism and redefinition serve to normalize far-right rhetoric. Far-right group often
use terms like ‘purify’ and ‘cleanse’ and refer to their ethnic group or nation as naturally pure
organisms in need of such cleansing.62 Scholars have found that far-right groups often adapt the
specific language they use over time, as older terms become knowns as extremist calling cards
and new words become more common in everyday language. This shows a level of adaptability
that has been noted since the beginning of Nazi propaganda. For instance, rather than focus on
ideas of racial superiority new far-right groups use the language of ‘differentialism,’ meaning
that different ethnic groups should attempt to achieve cultural hegemony within their own
spheres. These far-right groups then argue that when multiculturalism or any attempts at equity
corrupt the natural state of racial hegemony and therefore is true genocide.63 This approach
shows far-right groups both obscuring the logical conclusions of their ideology, mass murder,
and redefining the use of words otherwise used in critiques of their own ideology. Thus, a key
part of this paper’s analysis will be looking for and catalog these linguistic tools.
The Positive Self and Negative Other
Drawing further on the literature this paper will examine how far-right propaganda seeks
frames itself and its opposition. Far-right propaganda utilizes and us versus them narrative
reminiscent of horizontal populism. This creates an “ideological square” in which there exists “a
Positive Self Presentation and a simultaneous Negative Other Presentation... the out-group is
62
Rodger Griffin. “‘Lingua Quarti Imperii’: The Euphemistic Tradition of the Extreme Right”: Doublespeak: The
Rhetoric of the Far-right since 1945. Edited by Feldman, Matthew, and Jackson, Paul. New York: Ibidem Verlag,
2015. ProQuest Ebook Central.
63
Griffin. “‘Lingua Quarti Imperii” 40-50.
represented in negative ways and the values of the in-group represented in positive ways.”64
Further, far-right media presents the out group as not only opposed to the in group’s values but
as directly threatening to them.65 This paper will therefore examine how far-right propaganda
places groups it sees as deviant as a “them” and attempts to frame the “us” around nationalism.
IV. Method
Ethnographic Critical Discourse Analysis
This analysis will apply Stanton Wortham and Angela Reyes’ method of ethnographic
critical discourse analysis to analyze how Murdoch Murdoch presents changes to the status-quo
as threats to viewers’ ontological security. Wortham and Reyes’ approach seeks to understand
how people interact with language and what it communicates to them by focusing on the relevant
indexicals in the event analyzed.66 An indexical is any word or expression whose meaning is
context dependent.67 Wortham and Reyes’ approach to discourse analysis works in three phases.
The first of which is mapping narrative events. To map the narrative a researcher must group
events and dialogue by similar characteristics such as setting, or characters present, and analyze
how these separate groupings of events and language interact with each other within the
narrative. Mapping out the narrative consists of determining how the narrative portrays
characters relative to each other and what key concepts that positioning communicates to the
audience. The goal is to determine the narrated and narrating events. The narrated event is what
64
Janet Wilson “Toxic Rhetoric: The Language of the Turner Diaries: A Novel”: Doublespeak: The Rhetoric of the
Far-right since 1945. Edited by Feldman, Matthew, and Jackson, Paul. New York: Ibidem Verlag, 2015. ProQuest
Ebook Central. 69.
65
Wilson “Toxic Rhetoric” 69.
66
Stanton Wortham and Angela Reyes, Discourse Analysis Beyond the Speech Event (London: Routledge, 2015). 40
67
David Braun. “Indexicals.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (Stanford University, January 16, 2015).
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/indexicals/.
the discourse event seeks to communicate to its audience. The narrating event is how they
communicate the narrated event69
Phase two, divided into three subsections, involves determining the relevant indexicals
and what those indexicals communicate to the audience across the poetic structure the narrative
event creates. The first subsection is selecting the indexicals. To determine which indexicals one
should examine a researcher should use the mapped-out narrative to select words that may carry
significant weight in the narrative or clarify the context of the social action occurring. Wortham
and Reyes point to three main indexical categories. The first is deictics. A deictic is an indexical
that assumes or establishes a part of the narrative. Such words related to characters are person
deictics, for example the word “I.” There are also temporal, spatial, and discourse deictics.70
Reported speech is any language that does not happen within the real time context of the
narrative, meaning a character referencing something they, or someone else, did or will do. This
is key because it provides clear framing. Everything being reported is from a certain perspective
with specific evaluations.71 Lastly, evaluative indexicals imply a presupposed evaluation or
judgment of what the indexical is referencing. Evaluative indexicals are either created
throughout the narrative by associating the indexical with a unique definition, known as
emergent evaluative indexicals, or by borrowing from a recognizable definition that a social
group has reference for, an enregistered evaluative indexical. When an evaluative indexical is
associated with a person or group it is referred to as an “emblem.”72
The second step in phase two is construing the indexicals. This is a metapragmatic
process, meaning it refers to how the language used implies the actual meaning out of the many
69
Wortham and Reyes, Discourse Analysis 44-46.
70
Wortham and Reyes. Discourse Analysis. 46-47.
71 Wortham and Reyes. Discourse Analysis. 47.
72 Wortham and Reyes. Discourse Analysis. 52.
possible ways a statement could be interpreted. After examining what indexicals are used and the
context they are used in, a discourse analyst then applies several possible ways the statement in
question could be interpreted. This includes looking at both explicit and implicit implications of
the signs in question and how they position the characters in narrative context.74
The last subsection of phase two is configuring the indexicals. After a researcher has
identified the key indexicals and how they illuminate the voicing present in the event they must
examine how those indexicals come to reliably communicate a set meaning. This means
determining the poetic structure of the discourse event. The poetic structure is the “back and
forth...between indexical signs and metapragmatic construals.”75 This implicit process wherein
scattered events come to signify a consistent social action is entextualization and identifying the
poetic structure indexicals take on is key to determining what social action the event
entextulizes.76
Lastly, a discourse analysis concludes with phase three, interpreting social action across
discursive events, meaning demonstrating that the event in question is emblematic of broader
patterns. To this a researcher must examine the broader context the narrative occurs in.
Enregisterment broadly refers to when a sign, within a narrative or otherwise, implies a certain
social action across many narratives and contexts. In another sense it is applying entextualization
en mass, across other narratives and real-word events. This analysis reveals repeated pathways
that social interactions occur in across multiple instances, and thus a broader implication emerges
from the singular narrative originally analyzed. From this a researcher can at last make a likely
conclusion to what meaning the narrative wishes to convey.77
74
Wortham and Reyes. Discourse Analysis. 54-60.
75
Wortham and Reyes. Discourse Analysis. 62.
76
Wortham and Reyes. Discourse Analysis 60.
77
Wortham and Reyes. Discourse Analysis 64-69.
Discourse Analysis Applied to Murdoch Murdoch
This analysis is limited to a set of seven episodes of MM titled “The Great Meme War.”
While the series originally was hosted on YouTube the videos have been taken down due to
violating YouTube’s hate speech guidelines.78 Currently, the creators host all the episodes on
their own website MurdohMurdoch.net. The episodes tell a continuous story and as such I will
map out the entire narrative as a single discursive event. To select the indexicals I refer to what
words what words the narrative uses to describe different grouping of characters. I then present
key indexical groups into data sets demonstrating their use throughout the narrative. I focus on
indexicals related to the framing characters in order to determine if the does indeed create a
Positive Self and a Negative Other, and further if negative other is framed as a threat to the
viewer’s sense of ontological security. I present construal and configuration in one section in
order to avoid repetition when describing the relevant contextual events analyzed. To construe
my indexicals I look at how the context in which these indexicals occur frames characters who
use them and therefore what positioning the indexicals accomplish. Then for configuring I
examine how these indexicals are presented across the narrative using a key scene by scene
analysis to see how the narrative transformers these words into more concrete meanings. This
will also reveal the social types common in far-right discourse that both the protagonists and
those who threaten their ontological security fill. I will further point to the political context
episodes occur in. Many episodes are based on topical issues, and therefore the real-word context
of what the series comments on is immensely important to determining what the narrative seeks
to say.
V. Data Analysis
78
Murdoch Murdoch “The Murdoch Murdoch Show”
Overview
MM targets white American’s ontological security by presenting an all-encompassing
ideological square in which the Positive Self is white Americans whose identity is protected by
ethno-nationalism. Conversely, the Negative Other is a monolithic opposition that MM frames as
one that seeks to destroy white America. MM achieves this by using familial person dietetics to
describe white characters, creating a sense of cohesion in which race and family are
synonymous. By then tying this association together with temporal and spatial deictics that
present the Negative Other as destructive to this family, MM frames any type of social or
political position, even those only slightly more moderate such as civic-nationalism, as a threat to
white American’s ontological security. Further, MM enregisters the evaluative indexical “racist”
by redefining it to mean someone honest and truthful. MM creates this association by repeatedly
presenting ethno-nationalism as scientific and its supporters as honest and trustworthy while
simultaneously presenting the Negative Other as deceitful and only motivated by power or
money. By creating a sense of family tied to truthful racism and placing it as the sole opposition
to a Negative Other that seeks to destroy white Americans MM targets its audience’s ontological
security.
Mapping the Narrative
Plot Summary
The Great Meme War (GMW) spans seven episodes of varying lengths, totaling in over
two hours of content. The GMW tells the story of three members of the Alt-Right, a loose,
largely online movement that advocates for far-right ideas, primarily white supremacy and anti-
Semitism.80 The three eponymous Murdochs are Murdoch, Murdoch-Chan, and Dr. Murdoch, all
80
Viveca S Green. “‘Deplorable’ Satire: Alt-Right Memes, White Genocide Tweets, and Redpilling Normies.”
Studies in American Humor 5, no. 1 (2019): 31-69. 33.
of whom are open ethno-nationalists. The three, along with various other members of the Alt-
Right fight throughout the series against the forces of ZOG, a Jewish controlled amalgamation of
everything they present as threats to security including communists, progressives, classical
liberals, etc. ZOG itself is common term in far-right discourse, standing for “Zionist Occupied
Government. It is the long held conspiracy theory that governments across the world are
controlled by Jewish influence.81 The story portrays online discourse as a fantasy-inspired world,
borrowing visual cues from a wide array of niche media including Star Wars, Lord of The Rights,
Game of Thrones, etc. Characters meant to represent real world figures are presented with loose
accuracy to fit the series’ themes. The series' crude cut and paste animation style lends itself to
this direct manner of reference. As such, MM does not only create its own indexicals, but directly
pulls from a wide swath of far-right ideas, language, and symbolism.
The Three Murdochs From Left to Right: Murdoch-chan, Murdoch, and Dr. Murdoch82
Episode One: The Great Meme War of 2016

Episode one The Great Meme War of 2016 portrays the 2016 election as a long and
protracted battle sequence in which the forces of the far-right battle a cavalcade of enemies, all
of which the show others in some form or another. For instance, the opposing force includes a
81
“ZOG,” Anti-Defamation League. https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/zog.
82
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Great Meme War of 2016” Date Accessed: February 26th, 2020.
https://www.murdochmurdoch.net/video/?play=The%20Great%20Meme%20War%20of%202016
monstrous version of George Soros, a Jewish billionaire philanthropist and Democratic Party
donor.83 The protagonists, conversely fight alongside well known figures in the far-right such as
Alex Jones, the founder of the far-right news website InfoWars, and host of the radio show the
Alex Jones Show,84 and Richard Spencer, founder of the ethno-nationalist National Policy
Institute,85 often credited with coining the term “Alt-Right.”86 After the far-right army claims
victory, one soldier identified as “R/TheDonald,” a reference to a SubReddit in which Trump
supporters congregate.87 asks if their side has really won. In response, one of our titular three
protagonists, Murdoch, gives a speech outlining the conflict between the Alt-Right and ZOG.88
Alex Jones fighting in The Great Meme War of 201689
Richard Spencer, along with two other Alt-Right Soldiers,

Listening to Murdoch’s speech in The Great Meme War of 201690
83
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Great Meme War of 2016.”
84
“Contributors” InfoWars. https://www.infowars.com/contributors/
85
“Richard Bertrand Spencer” Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-
files/individual/richard-bertrand-spencer-0
86
Tom Pollard, “Alt-Right Transgressions in the Age of Trump,” Perspectives on Global Development and
Technology 17, no. 1-2 (2018): pp. 76-88. 76.
87
88
89
90
Episode Two: The Alt-Light Strikes Back
Episode two continues the story by introducing the audience to a new character, William
Luther Pierce, author of the infamous far-right novel The Turner Diaries.91 Pierce as a mentor
and leader for the Alt-Right. The series also introduces the concept of the “Alt-Light” members
of the far-right who, according to MM, do not accept ethno-nationalism, instead advocating for
the more moderate civic-nationalism. These characters betray the protagonists. One Alt-Light
member Paul Joseph Watson, editor-at-large of InfoWars and host of his own far-right YouTube
channel,92 kills Peirce while the two of them, along with Murdoch, are away from the rest of the
Alt-Right. Simultaneously, former Brietbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos, disliked by many in the
far-right for his sexuality and Jewish identity,93 and Mike Cernovich, one of the main
propagators of the far-right #PizzaGate conspiracy,94 attack the other Alt-Right soldiers
including Dr. Murdoch and Murdoch-chan.
Episode Three: Your Hero's Journey

Episode three picks up where the second ended off. Murdoch kills Watson in response to
Peirce’s assassination. Pierce’s ghost then appears before Murdoch and tells him to seek training
from George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party.95 After being
imprisoned by the Alt-Light, Dr. Murdoch and Murdoch-Chan try to get R/TheDonald onto their
91
Wilson “Toxic Rhetoric “Far-right 69.
92
Paul Joseph Watson, “Contributor,” Alex Jones' InfoWars, https://www.infowars.com/author/paul-joseph-
watson/) ; PrisonPlanetLive. “Paul Joseph Watson.” YouTube. YouTube. Accessed April 18, 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/user/PrisonPlanetLive/about.
93
Orit Arfa, “Milo Yiannopoulos Talks About His Jewish Identity, Trump and Zionism in Berlin,” Jewish Journal,
July 3, 2019 https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/analysis/301037/milo-yiannopoulos-talks-about-his-jewish-
identity-trump-and-zionism-in-berlin/ ; Tom Pollard, “Alt-Right Transgressions in the Age of Trump,” Perspectives
on Global Development and Technology 17, no. 1-2 (2018): pp. 76-88. 80.
94
“Mike Cernovich.” Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-
files/individual/mike-cernovich
95
Lois Beckett. “George Lincoln Rockwell, Father of American Nazis, Still in Vogue for Some.” The Guardian.
Guardian News and Media, August 27, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/27/george-lincoln-
rockwell-american-nazi-party-alt-right-charlottesville
side by educating him about ethno-nationalism. The episode culminates with R/TheDonald
joining sides with the main characters.
Episode Four: The Last Stand of Implicit Whiteness

Murdoch begins to train with Rockwell who teaches him “the ways of National-
Socialism.”96 After leaving Rockwell, Murdoch goes to enlist the help of conservative Youtuber
Steven Crowder,97 reimagined as a sort of skin-head rough rider. Dr. Murdoch, Murdoch-chan,
and R/TheDonald escape to “Castle Cracker Barrel”98 where they meet Jared Taylor, a pseudo-
academic eugenicist.99 When Castle Cracker Barrel is besieged by the forces of ZOG, Murdoch,
along with Crowder and his supporters, arrive and save the ethno-nationalist forces.
Episode Five: The Real Red Pill Blues

After defeating ZOG for the time being the trio split again to find more allies in their war.
Murdoch finds a young black girl abandoned in the woods who refuses to leave his side of most
of the episode until he teaches her national-socialism and instructors her to “teach [her]
people”100 the same. Dr. Murdoch and Murdoch-chan form an alliance with a group they refer to
as “happas” who are half-white and half-Asian, claiming that they pose no threat to each other,
but both stand to lose if ZOG wins.
Episode Six: Galaxy MM88

This episode moves the conflict into a science fiction setting, staring with another brigade
of far-right figures reimagined as soldiers on a spaceship. The ship is eventually attacked by
ZOG. To the characters’ shock the enemies are both capitalists and communists, supposed
mutual enemies. Murdoch and Murdoch-chan escape to earth. Peirce, Dr. Murdoch, and
96
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Last Stand of Implicit Whiteness.” Accessed February 26th, 2020.
https://www.murdochmurdoch.net/video/?play=The%20Last%20Stand%20of%20Implicit%20Whiteness
97
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Last Stand of Implicit Whiteness.”
98
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Last Stand of Implicit Whiteness.”
99
“Jared Taylor,” Southern Poverty Law Center.
100
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Real Red Pill Blues” Date Accessed: February 26th, 2020.
https://www.murdochmurdoch.net/video/?play=The%20Real%20Red%20Pill%20Blues
R/TheDonald hide in the ship. Peirce tells the other two that while capitalists and communists
seem different at first they are the same because they ultimately are both beholden to money and
therefore “serve the same master, ZOG.”101 ZOG forces then kill Murdoch-chan takes Murdoch
prisoner.
Episode Seven: The Wanderer’s Choice

The last episode takes place several years after the first six episodes and shows a word where the
Alt-Right lost and ZOG, redubbed “the night” wins. Murdoch wanders the dystopia alone in
search of figures called the Oracles, mystical figures with the ability to change reality so that he
can revive his friends who died in the conflict. He runs into two orphaned white children Jen and
Zee, as well as Oswald Mosley, the leader of the World War Two era British Union of
Fascists.102 The three join Murdoch on his journey. Murdoch eventually finds the Oracles who
give him a choice between a world controlled by mainstream American conservatism and
American liberalism. Murdoch rejects both instead killing the Oracles, reinstating white power
across the world.
101
Murdoch Murdoch. “Galaxy MM88.” Date Accessed: February 26th, 2020.
https://www.murdochmurdoch.net/video/?play=Galaxy%20MM88
102
“Who Was Sir Oswald Mosley?,” BBC News (BBC, August 26, 2019) https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-
49405924
Narrated and Narrating Events
Data Table 1: Murdoch Murdoch’s Narrative Map
The construction of the narrated and narrating events both serve to construct the Positive
Self and Negative Other. The series’ multiple white nationalist characters at various points
explain how they classify and categorize the world and people constitutes the narrating event as
they present who is the Positive Self and who is the Negative Other. Ethno-nationalists constitute
the Positive Self, while everyone else is a monolithic Negative Other, classified as ZOG. MM
positions its explicitly ethno-nationalist characters above any other group. This creates a rigid
hierarchy between two solely opposed forces in what Murdoch refers to as “the Battle for
America”103 This battle, also referred to as “The Great Meme War”104 constitutes the narrated
event. Each episode presents an element that builds on the dichotomy between the two groups.
103
104
The ethno-nationalist narrators include the three Murdochs as well as the four representatives of
the twentieth century far-right, Mosley, Peirce, Rockwell, and Taylor. These seven characters
express their views both through traditional dialogue and through impassioned speeches.
The Positive Self
The ethno-nationalist characters represent highly positioned values within the narrative.
Murdoch demonstrates his commitment to ethno-nationalism by inspiring others. He gives
impassioned speeches before battles such as in episodes four and six. He also inspires others to
become the ideal representation of white identity. He convinces Stephen Crowder and his
supporters to join the fight against ZOG and cast off the negative perceptions ZOG has forced
onto them.105 Dr. Murdoch and Jarod Taylor both put a “scientific” spin on white supremacy,
couching the series’ racism in a loose understanding of biology.106 Murdoch-chan functions
primarily as an anti-feminist. She repeatedly cites her desire to be nothing more than to be a
mother,107 and laments how modern society forced her to waste time in school, rather than have
children.108 Mosley, Peirce, Rockwell, and Taylor all serve as an old guard of the far-right, as all
were prominent figures in 20th century fascist movements. They frame the conflict through a
now and then lens. Each describes how in the past white people upheld western civilization
including art, philosophy and science.
The Negative Other
The Negative Other, ZOG, always seeks to destroy white identity. The series also defines
ZOG through its Jewish influence. MM identifies characters as Jewish through visual signifiers
such as religious clothing and using the Happy Merchant meme, a common anti-Semitic image
105
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Last Stand of Implicit Whiteness”
106
See, Murdoch Murdoch. “The Real Red Pill Blues”
107
See, Murdoch Murdoch. “The Real Red Pill Blues”; Murdoch Murdoch. “Galaxy MM88”
108
Murdoch Murdoch. “Galaxy MM88”
depicting Jewish people as treacherous.109 Almost all conflict in MM is the result of Jewish
influence. Jewish characters corrupt a natural order that the Alt-Right wants to return to. ZOG
pushes for ideas such as diversity and egalitarianism. Characters who value progress are always
positioned as villainous, such as MM’s depiction of Angela Merkel, who imprisons Murdoch;110
greedy, such as the members of the Alt-Light who betray the movement for financial success;111
or are otherwise demonized as naive or ignorant.112 The one character to cross from the forces of
ZOG to the Alt-Right is R/TheDonald, who, while eventually radicalized, is still often portrayed
as child-like. In episode six Dr. Murdoch and Pierce find him asleep because “someone told
[him] to take a nap.”113
The Happy Merchant.114
Selecting Indexicals
Deictics
To determine who MM classifies as the Negative Other this paper will examine the
person deictics and descriptive words that refer to groups, individuals and ideologies that act in
109
“The Happy Merchant” Anti-Defamation League. https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/the-
happy-merchant
110
Murdoch Murdoch. “Galaxy MM88.”
111
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Alt-Light Strikes Back” Date Accessed: February 26th 2020
https://www.murdochmurdoch.net/video/?play=The%20Alt%20Light%20Strikes%20Back
112
This can be seen for instance when Murdoch asks a ZOG survivor from one battle who says, “I just wanted
everyone to be equal.” Murdoch Murdoch. “The Real Red Pill Blues.”
113
Murdoch Murdoch. “Galaxy MM88.”
114
“The Happy Merchant” Anti-Defamation League
opposition to the protagonists. To examine how MM frames the Positive Self this paper will
examine the person deictics that reference the Alt-Right. This paper will specifically focus on
familial language, and language that describes what MM includes as part of white identity, also
referred to a “western civilization,” or some variation thereof, throughout the show.
This paper also tracks the temporal and spatial deictics to see how it frames the sense of
tradition it seeks to preserve versus the threats to tradition, and therefore the threats to
ontological security. Specifically, this paper will track references to Alt-Right as upholding
tradition and national sovereignty while the groups that constitute the Negative Other as newer,
more modern, and other such similar descriptions. This analysis will also track spatial deictics
that position the Negative Other as inhabiting places that symbolize modernity, primarily the
presentation of cities in the series and what is positioned against them, primarily smaller
communities, such as towns.
Lastly, this paper will track the entextualization of how MM redefines the term “racist” to
signify qualities like honesty, truth, and adherence to science. By openly embracing the term
“racist” and associating it with truth, MM gives the term a new definition set apart from more
negative associations. MM’s story, steeped in anti-Semitism, positions its depictions of Jewish
people as powerful and money obsessed. It thus further builds its monolithic Negative Other by
indexing other negative groups, especially the Alt-Light, as similarly money obsessed.
Therefore, this analysis will track two patterns of discourse. How MM’s characters define the
term “racist” by positive associations and by positioning it against discourse surrounding money.
Construing and Configuring Indexicals
The Positive Self Upholds America while the Negative Other Brings Change
MM uses familial person deictics in conjunction with temporal and spatial deictics to
construct an imagined white America under threat from ZOG. Across the seven episodes ethno-
nationalist characters use familial language to describe both their fellow soldiers as well as the
white race as a whole. In doing so MM makes race synonymous with family. Further by
portraying ZOG as destructive to that family MM presents progressivism as equally destructive.
MM bolsters this by using temporal and spatial deictics to tie this familial terminology to a
struggle for who control the United States. By associating the familial Alt-Right with an America
created for any by white individuals and ZOG as an agent of change that would completely erase
that white America, MM positions any social change as dangerous to its viewer’s sense of
security.
Below, Data Table One shows the familial language used to refer to white or Alt-Right
characters throughout the seven episodes. Data Table Two shows all the groups, people, and
ideologies that MM positions as part of ZOG and thus a monolithic Negative Other. Lastly, Data
Table Three breaks down the numerous references to Jewish people as members of ZOG.
Data Table 2: Familial Language used to refer to the Alt-Right or White People as a whole.
Word/Phrase Number of Occurrences Word/Phrase Number of Occurrences
Born 1 Grandchildren 1
Brother 6 Home 1
Brother’s war 2 Homeland 1
Children 5 House 1
Cousins 1 Husbands 1
Daughter 1 Mother 3
Descendants 1 Posterity 1
Family 2 Son 1
Father 5 Wife 1
Fatherland 1 Wives 1
Forefather 2 Total 39
Data Table 3: Who Makes Up the Enemy (Groups/People/Ideologies)

Enemy Number of Times Enemy Number of
Mentioned Times Mentioned
Abraham Lincoln 1 Jewish People117 30
African Americans 10 Mike Cernovich 1
Alt-Light118 4 Liberals 1
Baby Boomers 2 The Left 1
Barack Obama 1 LGBTQ+ 4
Buzzfeed 1 London 1
Capitalists119 3 Mao Zedong 1
Civic Nationalism 2120 Marxist/Marxism 5
Communists/ 4 New World Order 1

Communism
Democrats 2 Open Society 1

Foundation121
Egalitarianism/ 1 Professors 1
Ultra-Egalitarianism
Feminist/Feminism 2 Progressives/ 1
Progressivism
[German] 1 Shia LeBeouf 1

Government
Globalists/Globalism 4 SJWs122 2
117
See Data Table 4 for a full list of terms used to refer to Jewish people.
118
This is potentially under counted. See, Limitations section.
119
Unlike other ideologies and their supporters MM makes it clear it has made a distinction between capitalism and
capitalists stating capitalism itself as “a great economic tool” but only as good “as the people using” ZOG. Murdoch
Murdoch. “Galaxy MM88”
120
This is potentially under counted. See, Limitations section.
121
“George Soros - Open Society Founder and Chair.” Open Society Foundations.
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/george-soros
122
Short for “Social Justice Warrior,” SJW gained widespread in online discourse during “GamerGate” a
conservative backlash to an increase in feminist theory-based criticism of the video game industry. See, Abby
Ohlheiser, “Why 'Social Justice Warrior,' a Gamergate Insult, Is Now a Dictionary Entry,” The Washington Post
(WP Company, October 7, 2015). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/10/07/why-social-
justice-warrior-a-gamergate-insult-is-now-a-dictionary-entry/
Haiti 1 Society 1
Hippies 3 Television 1
Hollywood 2 The Vatican 1
The International 3 The Welfare State 1

Finance System
Total 106
Data Table 4: Discursive Negative References to Jewish People

Phrase Number of Phrase Number of
Occurrences Occurrences
Based Jew 1 Satanic Kike 1
High IQ Individuals 1 Skipes 1
Israel 1 Synagogue of 1
Satan
Jew/Jews 2 (((They/Them))) 4
123
Jewish Stuff 1 They (without 1

((())) but
explicitly made
clear to be Jewish)
JQ 3 ZOG 3
Jewy Celeb 1 Zionists 1
The Jew Karl Marx 1 Those who control 1

both [Capitalists
and Communists]
Kike 6 Total 30
Alt-Right characters occasionally use familial person deictics literally, such as when
Murdoch instructs “wives” to “kiss [their] husbands goodbye.”124 However more often it serves
as a metaphor, showing unity among white people. For instance, at one point Dr. Murdoch tells
123
The placement of ((()))) around a word has become a symbol in far-right discourse to indicate a person is Jewish
or under Jewish influence See, “Echo.” Anti-Defamation League. https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-
symbols/echo
124
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Real Red Pill Blues.”
Murdoch “I know we’re not brothers, but we’re brothers,”125 implying a deeper sense of
community that literal familial ties. What follows is an analysis of key scenes that provide
context and meaning to these data tables, specifically how Murdoch ties race to family and how
the series creates its key conflict with ZOG. The series first establishes the parameters of the
conflict in episode one during Murdoch’s speech to the Alt-Right soldiers. A transcript of the
relevant parts of that speech is presented below.
Section of Murdoch’s Speech in The Great Meme War of 2016.126

2:34-2:56 Murdoch: Ugh Marxism, Feminism, Ultra-Egalitarianism, They’re all the same. We face an enemy that
can never be fully defeated. You can salt the fields, poison the wells, but they always come back.
2:56-3:06 R/TheDonald crying. Murdoch looks sympathetic and places his arm on him
3:06-3:59 Murdoch: Take heart brother for today we’ve claimed a great victory. One that the cucks and liberals
said couldn’t be made. They said it’d take a miracle. That our people would willingly dispossess themselves of
their own home and that we would forfeit our posterity to an alien identity. That our children should be made
minorities in the lands of their forefathers. But through our unity of purpose, our refusal to surrender and our faith
in one another we have overcome the all but impossible odds that were arrayed against us. We’ve said “not this
time, not this day, not on our watch. We men of the West.” I’ve seen strangers become friends, and I’ve seen
friends die for each other.
3:59-4:02 More mid shots of Alt-Right figures as well as Murdoch-Chan
4:02-5:09 Murdoch: You of the 14th battalion and you of the 88th meme brigade I saw you there when
Pennsylvania was wrested from the control of the enemy. I watched the cavalry charge the enemy flanks in
Wisconsin. I gazed in awe at the endless shelling that lit up the skies of Michigan. Someday you’ll tell your
grandchildren about the Great Meme War of 2016 and how you were part of a movement that fought for America.
Not the America of Obama and the progressives and the globalists, but the America of your fathers. So, while we
here today celebrate let us not forget the long road ahead. It was you who dared to dream the memes of our
forefathers and let us ensure that our struggle will have not been in vain. And so, we will fight on as soldiers, as
brothers, as friends.
In this speech Murdoch positions both the Alt-Right and ZOG, and uses temporal, spatial,
and person deictics to establish an imagined America that the Alt-Right fights for. Murdoch
immediately establishes ZOG’s component groups as the Negative Other, listing out several
groups, “Marxism, feminism, [and] ultra-egalitarianism” later adding in progressives, Barack
Obama, and globalism.127 He says the Alt-Right should make no distinction between these
125
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Alt-Light Strikes Back”
126
127
groups, telling his followers “[t]hey’re all the same...an enemy.”128 By contrast, Murdoch
constructs the Alt-Right, through familial language. He calls R/TheDonald “brother”129 which he
later repeats, expanding the label to all of the Alt-Right saying they all will fight on “as soldiers,
as brothers, as friends.”130 These familial descriptors establish a sense of unity tied to white
identity.
That unity is further constructed through an imagined shared heritage. Using the familial
deictics in conjunction with spatial deictics Murdoch calls the United States “the America of
your forefathers.”131 By contrast there also exists a possible “America of Obama and the
progressives and the globalists.” Which directly threatens the current America because it seeks to
make the true Americans “minorities” and bring an “alien” group to power.132 This framing
demonstrates Murdoch constructing an imagined all white community. An imagined community
is a false presentation of a nation-state that constructs an often-homogenous legitimate
membership and excludes all other groups. Therefore, to have national belonging one must first
be a member of the imagined community.133 By saying that there is an America created by the
Alt-Right’s forefathers, and one that exists in opposition to it, housing groups that are
categorically not within the Positive Self, Murdoch constructs his imagined America as a white
ethno-state. This white America cannot, according to Murdoch, exist at the same time as any
other.
128
129
130
131
132
133
Hilary Parsons Dick. Words of Passage: National Longing and the Imagined Lives of Mexican Migrants.
University of Texas Press, 2018. 46-47.
Murdoch also uses temporal deictics to add a facet to the conflict that pits progress
against tradition facet to the conflict over which imagined America exists. “Forefathers”134
implies that the imagined white America has a more legitimate claim. Their ancestors created
America, whereas ZOG seeks to change who already controls it, replacing its founders with new
groups. By including globalism Murdoch also taps into longstanding far-right propaganda that
argues globalism replaces the rightful owners of a country with outside forces.136 In this speech
Murdoch establishes a dichotomy wherein the Alt-Right protects the imagined white America.
By contrast, the Negative Other bring new groups into power, destroying the original America.
MM further builds on metaphorical white family in how it describes war, separating wars
between western nations apart from other conflicts. When Dr. Murdoch and Murdoch-chan go to
seek help from a “tribe” of “happas,” their slur for half-Asian, half-white individuals, their leader
asks if their “children will be forced into camps, recognized as sub-human.”140 Dr. Murdoch
refutes this assessment of genocide by saying “history is a litany of war and conquest for
resources” distinct from “brothers’ wars.”141 MM repeats this when Oswald Mosley gives his
interpretation of World War Two calling it a “brothers’ war, a needless thing” that “cost the
pride of [his] nation.”142 Alt-Right characters further reinforce the idea of “brothers’ wars” with
temporal deictics categorizing racial groups as parts of unique homes. Murdoch-chan says to the
leader of the half Asian group that ZOG will create a “blight” on “both [their] houses.”143 The
choice of the words “both” and the plural version of house implies mutual exclusivity. The
134
136
140
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Real Red Pill Blues.” The Far-right has a complicated relationship with its views on
Asian people with many members fetishize Asian women. See, Audrea Lim, “The Alt-Right's Asian Fetish,” The
New York Times (The New York Times, January 6, 2018).
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/opinion/sunday/alt-right-asian-fetish.html.
141
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Real Red Pill Blues.”
142
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Wanderer’s Choice.”
143
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Real Red Pill Blues”
repetition of war between what MM sees as white nations as pointless and unnatural because they
go against the family is further reinforced by temporal deictics that present it as a violating
tradition.
Episode seven shows what happens when white America loses tradition using spatial
deictics to establish the city as a center of the ills ZOG creates. Murdoch and the two children
who end up joining him, Jen and Zee first discover Mosley in a stockade with two white children
throwing tomatoes at him. The children labeled Mosley a “filthy racist.”144 Murdoch asks
Mosley how he could have wound up in a stockade for being a “racist” by inquiring about the
state of the families in the town:
Murdoch’s question to Mosely.145

4:52-4:54 Murdoch: Where are all the adults in this town?
4:54-5:10 Oswald Mosley: They grew bored with being parents. They all decided to run far away to the cities so
they could live forever. Now everything is falling apart.
MM uses “racist” as an evaluative indexical to positively index the far-right
(demonstrated in the next section of this analysis) and its members as associated with
truthfulness. Punishing Mosley for his racism demonstrates that these children, cut off from their
lineage, have consequently rejected the tradition that MM ascribes as values of the far-right and
ethno-nationalism. MM here employs spatial deictics to position the city as part of the Negative
Other positioning with regards to the town versus the city. Murdoch refers to their location,
named Mayfair, as a “town,” as opposed to the “cities” another spatial deictic.146 Mosley also
uses the temporal deictic “now” to say that the “falling apart” happened both after and because
144
145
146
the parents ran to the cities. MM thus states that the cities caused the parents to abandon their
proper role.
The depiction of the city in episode seven, dubbed Neo-Babylon, also shows a
monolithic, modern, enemy that is destructive to tradition and the family. The name itself
indexes modernity with the temporal deictic “neo” as its prefix. The group gets separated and
Murdoch finds Jen covered in makeup in a strip club called “Mao’s Place” explaining she signed
a contract with Jewish Hollywood producer who has a Happy Merchant face. Jen tells Murdoch
the producer will make her a movie star. Murdoch, and the narrative by extension, conflates this
with the sex workers in the strip club. Murdoch tells her “there will always be whores. You
should not strive to be one.”147 The visual and linguistic signs show that the city, like it did to the
parents of Mayfair, corrupts Jen.
Jen before making a Hollywood contract.148
Jen after making a Hollywood contract.149
147
148
149
The Hollywood produce with a Happy Merchant Face.150
The Positive Self as Truth and the Negative Other as Greedy
MM crafts the truthful racist as an emergent emblem. MM goes to great lengths to
associate racism with qualities such as honesty and truthfulness. The show both wants its
audience to believe that racists ideas are accurate and that its heroic protagonists embody racism.
By contrast, members of ZOG often operate in bad faith, driven solely by desires for money and
power. MM further uses this dichotomy to present its anti-Semitism. This is done through
associations of racism with science, absolute dichotomies, false analogy and utilizing the
familial, temporal and spatial deictics discussed above. This association emerges throughout the
narrative and is outlined below in data table five. By presenting money as the Alt-Light’s only
motivation and then associating Jewish people in control of money MM adds another layer to its
Negative Other.
Data Table 5: How MM enregisters the truthful racist indexical153

Positive Self Association Versus Negative Other Member Association
Member
Murdoch Believing in evolution Versus Paul Joseph Watson Believes racism is

synonymous with racism wrong
Murdoch Refuses to renounce the Versus Paul Joseph Watson Believes abandoning
truth: race realism and the race realism is the
JQ only way “forward”
Murdoch Refuses to renounce the Versus Paul Joseph Watson Only concerned with
150
153
This Data table only presents the key scenes described within this paper. However more pairings exist in the
narrative. See limitations section.
truth for financial gain selling product
Dr. Murdoch “We” are the racists Versus R/TheDonald Falsely believes
racism is part of
Negative Other
Murdoch-chan Racism is equal to Versus R/The Donald Falsely believes

keeping paint colors racism is part of
separate Negative Other
Alt-Right Forces Fight for truth above all Versus Milo Yiannopoulos, Mike Leave the movement
else Cernovich for profit
William Luther Believes class struggles is Versus Capitalists and Pit brother against
Pierce false racial infighting Communists brother with false
class war
William Luther Recognizes Jewish Versus ZOG Controls those

Pierce influence over modern concerned with
capitalism money
Oswald Mosley Laments the white race Versus The Oracles Control perception
fighting itself of reality
Murdoch Heroic, refuses to accept Versus The Oracles Present false choices
false choices that leave them in
power
This dichotomy first occurs in episode two when Murdoch discusses the concept of
racism with Paul Joseph Watson, who by the end of the episode is revealed to be a member of
the Alt-Light.
Murdoch’s views on evolution.154

2:24-2:30 William Luther Pierce sleeps, snoring loudly
2:31-2:35 PJW: Christ, He’s just as unbearable sleeping as he is awake!
2:35-2:47 Murdoch: Go easy on him Paul Joseph. I know he’s a hard ass but imagine how you would feel if your
theories on aliens were as ridiculed as his political ideas are
2:47-2:50 PJW: He’s a racist, bigot, xenophobe
2:50-2:54 Murdoch: Do you believe in evolution or not Paul Joseph?
2:54-2:58 PJW: E-Evolution? What’s that have to do with it?
2:58-3:19 Murdoch: It has everything to do with it. These days they keep pushing this concept that everybody’s
the same. That all races of men should live in the same home. But what if we’re not all the same? What if our
154
insistence on egalitarianism does more harm to people than good?
Here, MM begins to redefine racism. Redefinition itself is a long used far-right tool to
reframe extreme views as logical and beneficial.155 In this scene Watson describes Pierce as “a
racist, bigot, [and] xenophobe.”156 Murdoch retorts with an absolutist dichotomy, asking “[d]o
you believe in evolution or not?”157 This frames the two concepts, racism and believing in
evolution as interconnected and therefore believing in one necessitates believing in the other.
Watson is either a racist, and therefore a believer in evolution, or he is not a racist, and rejects
science. Murdoch also associates rejecting science with progressivism. Murdoch begins his
pontification with the phrase “these days”158 a temporal deictic inferring the issues as new and in
opposition to the era of MM’s aforementioned forefathers. While when “these days” began is
nebulous, Murdoch constructs the “these days” as synonymous with the growth in left leaning
groups. Murdoch continues that “they keep pushing this concept that everybody’s the same.”
“Concept” implies a lack of factual basis, unlike “racist” which is associated with the scientific
term “evolution.” He further solidifies the shakiness of egalitarianism using the word “pushing,”
implying a degree of unnaturalness. If equality were innate there would be no need for the yet
unidentified “they” to push it. Murdoch further uses the familial term “home.” Since MM has
already associated the idea that race equals family in the previous episode the viewer here can
infer that these two concepts, “all races of men” and “the same home” cannot exist at once. Thus,
Murdoch concludes with the question: “What if our insistence on egalitarianism does more harm
155
Griffin. “‘Lingua Quarti Imperii”: 40-50
156
157
158
to people than good?”159 By this point in the narrative M had made it’s answer clear.
Egalitarianism is unnatural, forced on white America by an unidentified “they.”
The next positive association between racism and truth comes in episode three when Dr.
Murdoch and Murdoch-Chan attempt to teach R/TheDonald about ethno-nationalism. After the
Civic-Nationalists have imprisoned Dr. Murdoch and Murdoch-chan, Dr. Murdoch asks
R/TheDonald, assigned to guard the two, “do you like science?”160 R/TheDonald responds by
saying “I don’t speak to racists.”161 to which Dr. Murdoch says “Don’t be so closed minded.
Science can be fun, even if it is kind of racist.”162 Here the narrative builds on the positioning
between racism and egalitarianism presented in Murdoch’s discussion with Watson. Dr.
Murdoch uses the term “science” and R/TheDonald refers to him as a “racist.”163 In the scene
R/TheDonald’s use of term becomes a deictic of discourse, it “stand[s] in”164 for the term
science, positioning the two as synonymous which is reinforced when Dr. Murdoch affirms that
science is, according to him, racist. Further he describes R/TheDonald’s opposition to hearing
racist views as “close minded”165 suggesting it is inaccurate. The term “racist” is then directly
tied to the protagonists in the following section from the same scene.
Dr. Murdoch trying to “educate” R/TheDonald.166

2:40-2:44 Dr. Murdoch: So, you see R/TheDonald Civic Nationalism is destined to failure because of biological-
[cut off by R/TheDonald]
2:44-2:52 R/The Donald: Whoa! Check out this based black guy with a Trump hat. The Democrats are the real
racists.
2:52- Dr. Murdoch: No God damnit! We are! Murdoch-Chan it’s impossible. He’s functionally retarded.
159
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Alt-Light Strikes Back.”
160
Murdoch Murdoch “Your Hero’s Journey.” Date Accessed: February 26th, 2020.
https://www.murdochmurdoch.net/video/?play=Your%20Heroes%20Journey
161
Murdoch Murdoch “Your Hero’s Journey.”
162
163
164
Wortham and Reyes. Discourse Analysis. 48.
165
166
Dr. Murdoch uses the person deictic “we”167 to identify who the racists are. The audience
can infer from the context of the scene that Dr. Murdoch means both himself and the Alt-Right
as a whole since the two were imprisoned for refusing to renounce ethno-nationalism.168
Democrats, by contrast, cannot be racists according to MM. The series has so far positioned them
as harbingers of diversity which exists within the Negative Other. The emblem of racism is
reserved for the constructed “we” that value science and truth.
Murdoch-chan then builds on this enregisterment through euphemism and analogy. After
Dr. Murdoch fails to convince R/TheDonald, framed as childish for his beliefs, Murdoch-chan
uses paint colors as a metaphor for her racist beliefs.
Murdoch-chan’s color analogy.169

3:35-3:39 Murdoch-chan: Oh R/TheDonald. Be careful you don’t want to mix them all [the colors] together.
3:39-3:41 R/TheDonald: Well why not?
3:41-3:55 Murdoch-chan: Well then you wouldn’t have any colors but one. You have to keep the colors separate
if you want to keep the colors. You know, a lot of people hate me because I think each color has to have its own
place on the pallet.
3:55-3:57 R/TheDonald: Well why would someone hate you for that?
4:00-4:02 Murdoch-chan: What’s your favorite color R/TheDonald?
4:02-4:03 R/TheDonald: Red white and blue
4:04-4:14 Murdoch-chan: Well don’t you know that those can’t be made by mixing other colors together? So, if
you mix them all you can’t get them back
By using paint as her euphemism Murdoch-chan reduces different people groups to one
characteristic that she and, by extension, the narrative, has deemed essential: Their skin color.
Murdoch-chan entangles the two ideas so thoroughly that when she says “a lot of people hate me
because I think each color has to have its own place on the pallet.”170 The audience can infer that
167
Murdoch Murdoch. “Your Hero’s Journey.”
168
169
170
Murdoch Murdoch. “Your Hero’s Journey.”
she is not only referring to paint. She is talking about her advocacy for ethno-nationalism. By
using color as a euphemism Murdoch-chan paints this opposition as nonsensical because, as she
says, if one mixed all the colors on a pallet “then you wouldn’t have any colors but one.”171 This
is true for the object of her literal dialogue, i.e. the colors on a painter's pallet, but because she is
indexing through her metaphor opposition to racial diversity as well she indexes that her second
supposition is just as obvious. This sense of obviousness leads R/TheDonald to ask, “why would
someone hate you for that?”172 MM conveys that opposing racial purity is just as absurd as hating
someone for not wanting only one color left on a pallet.
This event concludes with a direct connection to ontological security. R/TheDonald
state’s his favorite color is “red, white, and blue.”173 In doing so he uses a deictic of discourse
that indexes the American flag, made clear due to his association with civic-nationalism.
R/TheDonald often he drapes himself in an American flag at almost all points in the series.
When Murdoch-chan responds by pointing out that these are primary colors that cannot be
created through mixing other colors MM implies that this is true of the United States. If one
cannot create the United States from mixing races, then it must belong to whichever group
founded it, white people in MM’s framing, and mixing that group with other races would erase it.
R/TheDonald (far-right) wearing an American flag shirt174
171
172
173
174
Murdoch Murdoch “The Last Stand of Implicit Whiteness”
MM explains ZOG’s opposition to racism as purely motivated by greed. Watson for
instance responds to Murdoch’s speech on evolution by trying to sell him Brain Force, a line of
energy pills InfoWars sells.175 MM creates a binary between the two forces’ goals. Watson does
not respond to Murdoch’s view that egalitarianism harms people with any argument, but rather
ignores it entirely and replaces discourse with product because ZOG does not care about the
truth.
Paul Joseph Watson attempting to sell Murdoch Brain Force.176

4:42-4:52 PJW: Pause. Huh, Oh Murdoch, you’re not thinking, straight are you? I know what you need. You need
some Brain Force. Pulls out bottle.
4:52-4:54 Murdoch looks dismayed
Later, when Murdoch and Watson engage in a battle after Watson assassinates Peirce,
Watson again tries to entice Murdoch with product, and adds on the additional possibility of
Murdoch himself making a similar profit. MM further reinforces its constructed binary choice
through more person and temporal deictics.
Paul Joseph Watson attempting to convince Murdoch to join the Alt-Light.177

9:15-9:30 PJW: Forget about the old man Murdoch. Imagine how many T-Shirts you could sell to an audience
like mine. You could, dare I say it, even have your own supplement line.
9:30-9:33 Murdoch: Paul Joseph you did this?
9:34-9:41 PJW: Ethno-nationalism must be destroyed. civic nationalism is the true way forward, to real progress.
9:44-9:48 Murdoch: Progress? Paul Joseph, only an SJW, speaks in such terms.
9:48-9:58 PJW: You have one opportunity to join us. Renounce race realism and never speak of the JQ again or I
will destroy you here and now.
9:58-10:00 Murdoch: I’ll never join you!
175
“Brain Force Plus.” Infowars Store. https://www.infowarsstore.com/brain-force.
176 Murdoch Murdoch. “The Alt-Light Strikes Back”
177
Watson makes a direct appeal to Murdoch’s potential financial benefit. He references
both MM’s own line of T-Shirts,178 and the chance to expand their market by selling supplements
as he does. MM’s choice to use InfoWars’ line of supplements should also be noted, as many
have cited Brain Force as ineffective.179 By using Brain Force as an example of how the Alt-
Light profits by “selling out” MM portrays moderation as fraudulent. Watson uses temporal and
spatial deictics, telling Murdoch to abandon the “old” and move “forward” to “progress.”180 Both
characters also employ absolute terms that allow for no middle ground between either position.
Watson refers to civic nationalism as “the true way” and that ethno-nationalism “must be
destroyed.”181
This scene also identifies anti-Semitism as logical. Watson says that to leave the Alt-
Right and ethno-nationalism Murdoch must renounce race realism and the JQ.182 Race realism is
the belief in supposed scientific evidence for differences among racial groups.183 The JQ, short
for the “Jewish Question,” is a common refrain in far-right discourse dating back to the 19th
century. The question supposes that there must be a sinister connection between the number of
Jewish people in positions of authority and a global Jewish conspiracy.184 By following
Murdoch’s positioning of racism as a truth pushed back against by an unidentified “they” this
scene places the enregisted indexical, race realism, as that truth and beings the process of
solidifying the “they” as Jewish people, more specifically ZOG. ZOG is therefore MM’s answer
178
Viralstyle. “MM Merch” https://viralstyle.com/store/mmmerch/mmmerchstore.
179
Charlie Warzel, “We Sent Alex Jones' Infowars Supplements to A Lab. Here's What's in Them.,” BuzzFeed
News (BuzzFeed News, August 9, 2017). https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/charliewarzel/we-sent-alex-jones-
infowars-supplements-to-a-lab-heres.
180
181
182
183
J. Philippe Rushton and Arthur R. Jensen “Wanted: More Race Realism,
Less Moralistic Fallacy” Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 11. No. 2, (2005) 328 –336.
184
Al Jazeera, “A Brief Dictionary to Help Understand the US Far-right,” Racism | Al Jazeera (Al Jazeera, October
8, 2017), https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/10/dictionary-understand-171002123412523.html).
to the JQ. MM here begins to suggest that the answer to why they see Jewish people as holding
some sort of disproportionate level of influence is because Jewish people control the
government.
MM builds on this dichotomy a few scenes later when Milo Yiannopolous gives Dr.
Murdoch, Murdoch-chan and the the Alt-Right forces the same choice as Murdoch, almost word
for word. Milo Yiannopolous attacks the group with a number of monstrous creatures, all with
the Happy Merchant face. He also reveals that on Alt-Right members, Mike Cernovich, betrayed
the movement for financial gain. When Cernovich says that ethno-nationalism will never have as
far as reach as he will by leaving the movement Dr. Murdoch reinforces the notion that the Alt-
Right is based in truth.186 This once again presents an absolute binary. Characters either support
ZOG for financial gain or uphold the truth.
Dr. Murdoch arguing with Milo Yiannopolous.187

7:19-7:21 Dr. Murdoch: It’s not about the audience. It’s about the truth.
7:22-7:31 Milo Yiannopoulos: I will give you one chance to join us. All you have to do is renounce race realism
and never speak again of the JQ
7:31-7:33 Unnamed Alt-Right Soldier: Never you Commie scum!
Milo Yiannopoulos with two Happy Merchant monsters188
186
Murdoch Murdoch. “The Alt-Light Strikes Back.”
187
188
Mike Cernovich holding a bag of money in front of the Happy Merchant monsters189
MM’s most explicit connection between Jewish people and control comes when Peirce
conflates capitalism and communism because, according to him, both create false conflict among
people of the same race. In episode six Peirce explains the connection.
William Luther Peirce’s discussion on Communism and Capitalism with R/The Donald and Dr. Murdoch.190
11:28-11:36 Dr. Murdoch: Peirce, it looked like capitalists were working with the communists back there.
They’re mortal enemies. Why would they be working together?
11:35-11:40 WLP: Because those who control both desire the same thing
11:40-11:43 R/TheDonald: But I thought capitalism was the greatest gift of mankind.
11:45-11:49 Dr. Murdoch: It’s a great economic tool R/TheDonald, but tools are only as good as the people using
them
11:50-11:59 WLP: The new world order schemers are absolutely determined to have their way. They have been
able to go a long way toward their goal by using subterfuge and depict
12:00-12:02 Dr. Murdoch: What do you mean they desire the same thing?
12:02-12:15 WLP: Both foment class struggle setting rich against poor and brother against brother. One strikes
from the upper class, the other from the lower class, but they both serve the same master: ZOG.
Later Pierce adds:
12:23-12:35 WLP: Was it not the Jew Karl Marx who coined the term capitalism, reducing the complexity of our
system of productive enterprise to merely one of its component parts: money?
By arguing that two seemingly opposite groups are actually the same because they create
artificial division among white people the show builds on the show’s familial deictics to further
portray all non-ethno-nationalist groups as equally dangerous. Peirce builds on Dr. Murdoch’s
189
190
Murdoch Murdoch. “Galaxy MM88”
previous distinction between different wars by rejecting that conflict over resources can ever be
class based. Instead he defines the participants in a class struggle with the familial deictics to
highlight their unnaturalness in the same way Mosely will in episode seven and Dr. Murdoch did
in episode five. Pierce also identifies ZOG as the creator of this unnatural conflict. MM frames
ZOG’s goals as unnatural and dishonest and therefore incompatible with the goals of the ethno-
nationalists. Peirce uses the person deictic “their” twice in describing what ZOG is after. ZOG
pursues “their goal” and what “they seek,” framing is as opposite of the Alt-Right’s goals. He
further states ZOG acts in bad faith by using “subterfuge and depict.” Lastly, by identifying Karl
Marx as “the Jew” and stating that he coined the term capitalism Pierce not only blames Jewish
people for perpetuating this false division, he blames them for creating the divisions as well.
The association between Judaism, money, and control culminates with the introduction of
the Oracles. Mosley first describes the Oracles as those who control “all matters of our reality...
they can alter what is perceived as good and evil... they can influence the minds of kings and
nations.”192 This description begins to imply to the viewer that the Oracles are themselves Jewish
due both to ZOG’s nature as a conspiracy theory surrounding Jewish control over governments
and MM’s emergent presentation of Jewish control up to this point. The series makes the
implication even clearer when Murdoch travels to their location the sign above the entrance says
“Welcome Zionists” with a Star of David. The main oracle as well wears a tallit, a Jewish prayer
shawl and a wide brimmed hat reminiscent of a Hasidic Jewish person might wear. Further the
Oracles require Murdoch to both sign a contract, just as the Hollywood producer made Jen do,
and pay for the opportunity to answer their question.
192
The Oracles’ question itself is the culmination of all the evaluation Murdoch has
presented throughout the narrative presenting Jewish people as the masterminds behind all other
forces of the Negative Other. The Oracles tell Murdoch he must choose between two options.
The left, visualized by a statue of a donkey, which will fill him with “compassion and love” but
will lead his people “to be dominated, destined to watch [their] women raped and [their] fathers’
graves desiccated.”193 The right, visualized by a statute of an elephant, by contrast will give him
“the greatest military man has ever seen ” but will cause his people to “always fight wars for
nothing” and that his “children will die in ditches in lands far away for no more for a few coins
to a handful of rich men.”194 Murdoch’s choice to instead kill the Oracles causes the world return
to a pre-ZOG state of being including Jen and Zee’s parents returning to normal and the sun
rising with the Sonnenrad, a Nazi symbol,195 placed over it. To do so he uses his sword which
Mosley previously had imbued with the “power of fascism.”196 By killing the Oracles, Murdoch
rejects ZOG’s false dichotomy, that his people must pay some sort of price for a benefit while
still ultimately der ZOG’s control, and instead uses the strength of fascism to rebuild the old
word of tradition and the imagined white America.
Gates to the Oracles197
193
194
195
“Sonnenrad” Anti-Defamation League. https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/sonnenrad
196
197
One of the Oracles, wearing a wide brimmed hat and Tallit198
Conclusions and Interpreting Cross Event Interpretations
Through the use of deictics and the racist emblem MM creates a narrative wherein the
heroic Alt-Right defeat ZOG, the manifestation of change that threatens white identity. MM
portrays any agent of change, or even more moderate movements within the far-right, as
inherently destructive to what they see as the natural order and their imagined America. The Alt-
Right in the narrative protects white identity and tradition, which it constructs through cohesive
familial language. It does so because the Alt-Right fights truth and for the preservation of its
imagined America. ZOG according to MM is a destructive force that upends the political order
the series frames as both natural and just, erasing the familial identity the show constructs around
race. Thus, MM seeks to create fear in its audience through their sense of security by
constructing a word where change threatens the “material, social, and political resources
perceived as necessary to sustain their basic values and ways of life”199 MM creates an absolute
dichotomy between the truthful racist, the Positive Self, and the greedy and egalitarian Negative
Other which threatens the viewer's ontological security.
MM’s approach to radicalization is not unique. their method of radicalization fits within a
wider history of far-right media’s discursive approaches to present ethno-nationalism as the sole
198
199
Lacey “Populism, Nationalism, and Ontological Security” 95
protector of white security. The far-right has long employed euphemistic language and absolutist
dichotomies to present a world wherein white people are under attack from those seeking social
change or from demographic changes that threaten white status. Research has consistently
demonstrated that the far-right seeks to radicalize individuals through this threatened sense of
security by means of a Positive Self and a Negative Other. For instance, in Europe far-right
parties have increased their electoral success by positing themselves as “protec[ors] of -
seemingly homogeneous- national identities.”200 The parties employ a “rhetoric of exclusion”
that creates an us versus them narrative around migration and groups such as Jewish people and
Roma.201 This can especially be seen with anti-Semitism. Jewish people have long been
scapegoated as the source for economic ennui, especially with the rise in globalization, one of
the many facets of MM’s Negative Other. As nation states become more embedded in a global
market people searching for a scapegoat for their lost sense of security land on blaming Jewish
people.202 Far-right propaganda has responded to this by presenting tropes rooted in anti-
Semitism. For instance, the ((())) placed around the word “they” at various points in MM
emerged to imply that Jewish influence in governments the world over, in other words ZOG,
“echoes down the ages.”203
Far-right media has also often dehumanized the Negative Other, especially when that
other is Jewish. An example of this would be the much-maligned Neo-Nazi novel The Turner
Diaries, written by the real-world version of MM’s William Luther Peirce, and often described as
the bible of the modern far-right. The Turner Diaries portrays Jewish characters as directly
200
Wodak, Ruth “Anything Goes!” The Haiderization of Europe.” in Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and
Discourse. Edited by Wodak, Ruth; KhosraviNik and Brigitte Mral. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. 25.
201
Wodak, Ruth “Anything Goes!” The Haiderization of Europe.” 29.
202
203
Pollard, “Alt-Right Transgressions in the Age of Trump,” 78
threating to white Americans doing things such as selling white women into slavery and even
disemboweling them.204
Racist groups and individuals have also long presented themselves as a lone source of
honesty instead of more traditional sources of information, just as MM has. Jarrod Taylor’s
magazine American Renaissance has long published inaccurate articles that advocate for race
realism using pseudo-science and flawed statistics.205 One such article stating “[t]here is a
difference between blacks and whites — analogous to the difference in intelligence — in
psychopathic personality considered as a personality trait.”206 It is not surprising therefore that
MM choses Taylor as one of its most highly positioned characters. Far-right media framing of a
truthful right and deceitful other has only grown more widespread in the digital age. In one study
of the incubation and dissemination of far-right talking points and memes online researchers
determined that one network of ten far-right alternative news sites were able to widely
disseminate anti-Islamic media that presented Muslim immigrants and refugees as destructive to
western nations with article titles such as “Militant Christians prepare to defend their
homeland.”207 Other researchers have found that far-right alternative media sites appropriate the
aesthetics and styling of traditional media platforms to give the appearance of legitimacy.208
Research of far-right alternative media in Norway found that it presented traditional news
sources as “inherently biased, deceitful and distanced from the concerns of ordinary people and
204
Wilson “Toxic Rhetoric”: Doublespeak: The Rhetoric of the Far-right since 1945. 69
205
“Jared Taylor.” Southern Poverty Law Center.; “American Renaissance” Southern Poverty Law Center.”
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/american-renaissance
206
“American Renaissance” Southern Poverty Law Center.”
207
Davey et al. “The Mainstreaming of Far-Right Extremism” 28-29.
208
Silje Nygaard. “The Appearance of Objectivity: How Immigration-Critical Alternative Media Report the News”,
2019 Journalism Practice.
as failing fundamentally.”209 Thus far-right often positions the Positive Self as the real bearer of
truth, and the Negative Other as maliciously deceitful.
MM represents a continuation in the far-right’s ability to adapt to new platforms and mold
its message to the issues of the day. MM employs common tactics used in far-right propaganda,
and applies them to modern internet discourse in order to present diversity, social progress, and
virtually any group not explicitly advocating for white power as destructive to the United States
and its white citizens. Non ethno-nationalist characters are presented as monolithic enemy
categorized under the conspiracy theory ZOG, even when they share extremely similar
viewpoints such as the civic nationalists. The show positions unbridled ethno-nationalism as the
only solution to preserve the audience’s security. By presenting political discourse as a binary
between a dishonest Negative Other that will destroy the imagined white America and a truthful
Positive Self that will maintain it MM target’s its audience’s sense of ontological security in
order to radicalize viewers to support ethno-nationalism.
VI. Limitations
Due to the scale of the project versus the time constraints allowed, this analysis faced several
limitations. Further study is needed to fully examine MM and similar digital far-right
propaganda. First, it is probable that the usage of some individual indexicals presented in the
data tables are even greater than observed. In particular, the terminology used to describe the
Alt-Light. Since a discourse analysis cannot examine every word in each discursive event, they
must select which salient indexicals point to the inferred meaning. Wortham and Reyes make the
selecting process a separate step of phase two requiring a degree of back and forth with the
construal stage. They state that a one-time selection will likely not capture all relevant
209
Tine Ustad Figenschou, and Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk. “Challenging Journalistic Authority.” Journalism Studies
20, no. 9 (April 2018): 1221–37. 1222.
indexicals.210 While the indexicals counted do demonstrate the formation of meaningful
pathways as Wortham and Reyes described, further analysis is needed to identify a more robust
count of these terms missed. Second, the cut and paste nature of MM’s animation means that the
shows uses the likenesses of many real-world figures. While I could identify the most relevant
figures for the pathways analyzed in this paper, I did not have the time to identify all such
references. As such MM could have further context and commentary not discussed in this
analysis. Lastly, while this analysis eludes to the myriad of niche references the series makes,
further research would undoubtedly reveal more to build upon.
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Murdoch Murdoch - A Case Study in Threats To Ontological Security

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Murdoch Murdoch - A Case Study in Threats To Ontological Security

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Julian Morein

Dr. Angela Kachuyeveski

Murdoch Murdoch: A Case Study in Threats to Ontological Security in Far-Right

disinformation presented as news,5 coordinated Twitter attacks,6 the incubation and

the status quo, be it demographic, political, cultural, or social, as threatening to ontological

security by utilizing a Positive Self and Negative Other dichotomy.

II. Literature Review

policy.18 Applying Adorno’s theories on authoritarianism to the election of Donald Trump,

While a psychological predisposition to supporting authoritarianism provides a useful

radicalize new members.

The Alliance Between Economic and Cultural Conservatives

described the pseudo-conservative as a uniquely American problem writing, “pseudo-

This idea became far more important in later literature.

pluralist tradition is fundamentally pro-capitalist” and that “Anti-pluralist conservatives have

False Consciousness and Cultural Hegemony

their own power and status.

purely economic driven movements or create movements based on nonexistent problems.43

immigration.48 Cultural anxiety can therefore be defined as “a symptom of socially and

simultaneously under attack because of this identity.50

economic downturns. Whereas historically anti-Semitism came as a result of economic

guilty of this new situation and they find the Jews.”53

radicalizes individuals. As discussed in the psychology-based literature, while there may be

predispositions to supporting authoritarianism, especially among already right leaning people,

globalization and demographic shifts, provide that activation.

from propaganda that targets threats to security.

creating, or exacerbating perceived threats to security provides a key component of

III. Analytic Framework

Ontological security provides a useful framework to examine how far-right views

versus them narratives.

Ontological Security and Rhetoric

The Positive Self and Negative Other

Ethnographic Critical Discourse Analysis

communicate the narrated event69

with specific evaluations.71 Lastly, evaluative indexicals imply a presupposed evaluation or

emergent evaluative indexicals, or by borrowing from a recognizable definition that a social

associated with a person or group it is referred to as an “emblem.”72

conclusion to what meaning the narrative wishes to convey.77

MM targets white American’s ontological security by presenting an all-encompassing

ethno-nationalism. Conversely, the Negative Other is a monolithic opposition that MM frames as

Mapping the Narrative

everything they present as threats to security including communists, progressives, classical

pulls from a wide swath of far-right ideas, language, and symbolism.

Episode One: The Great Meme War of 2016

victory, one soldier identified as “R/TheDonald,” a reference to a SubReddit in which Trump

Alex Jones fighting in The Great Meme War of 201689

Richard Spencer, along with two other Alt-Right Soldiers,

including Dr. Murdoch and Murdoch-chan.

Episode Three: Your Hero's Journey

joining sides with the main characters.

Episode Four: The Last Stand of Implicit Whiteness

Episode Five: The Real Red Pill Blues

but both stand to lose if ZOG wins.

Episode Six: Galaxy MM88

of far-right figures reimagined as soldiers on a spaceship. The ship is eventually attacked by

Episode Seven: The Wanderer’s Choice

across the world.

Data Table 1: Murdoch Murdoch’s Narrative Map

The Positive Self

Murdoch demonstrates his commitment to ethno-nationalism by inspiring others. He gives

couching the series’ racism in a loose understanding of biology.106 Murdoch-chan functions

including art, philosophy and science.

The Negative Other

[him] to take a nap.”113